Singapore Heritage Festival - Sights at Street Parties

Like a party animal, I roam down from Telok Ayer, to Bukit Pasoh to Keong Siak Street and even to A Taste of Heritage at National Museum. All thanks to the great Singapore Heritage Festival events organised by the NHB.

A Taste of Heritage
Did you know food stalls used to line the grounds of the National Museum in the 1960s? Several stall holders relived the good old street food culture were seen selling their dishes here, including my favorite Tong Heng.

Street vendors.

Paper Monkey Theatre Teochew Metal Rod Puppet show

Little One and I enjoyed ourselves tremendously at the performance, Web of Deceit, by the Paper Monkey Theatre. Web of Deceit is one of the episodes in Journey to the West, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.

Bukit Pasoh Street Party

It was a  wonderful party. I had some chicken wings from the New Majestic Hotel while waiting for performance to start. It was yummilicious! Although we did not watch all the performance but we did managed to watch those that we like, eg the dance performance by Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan Dance Theatre Limited. Not to mention lion dances! It is not easy to catch performance on such a street as it was rather flat road. It is not very child friendly. Hence, I saw many parents carrying their children while watching performances. I am not sure why but towards the end of the programme, many were seen sitting around the performers. Probably, many were tired from all the standing and walking around the road at the end of the day We knew we were.

Various performances

There are plenty to see! From olden days hawkers to mata (policemen) to majie (olden days domestic helpers who had taken a vow of celibacy before a deity on an altar, in front of a witness, to never marry)

Dragon dance by Kong Chow Wui Koon

We feasted our eyes on the first Northern Lion Dance by Singapore Chin Woo Athletic Association. They were playful and energetic! The emcee mentioned that the family members of the members of the Association had sewn these lions!

Northern Lion Dance by  Singapore Chin Woo Athletic Association.  Northern lions often dance as a pair. The pair of adult Northern Lions are made up of a female and a male.Their gender were differentiated by the color of the ribbon that is tied on the lions’ head.. The female Northern Lion has a green colored ribbon tied on, while the male has a red colored ribbon. 

Finally, we also get to see Singapore Hok San Association's performance! Theirs is a southern lion. Great cat-like movement! 

"Plucking the green" performance by the Singapore Hok San Association.

Chin Woo was spotted doing some warming up. A number of kids joined in to do stretching cartwheel and somersault

Urban Ventures at Keong Siak Road

Keong Siak Road, which is located nearby , had various activities organised for the public too! There were people practicing their yoga on the closed roads. A few crafts stalls and quite a number were drawing what they saw on Keong Siak Road, mostly the iconic building below, which used to house the Tong Ah Eating House.

The iconic Tong Ah Eating House. Potato Head had taken over now.

Potato Head

Temples like this can be seen in the midst of rows of shophouses. Pretty contrasting against the shophouses. 

Thian Hock Keng Ma Zu Dan Celebration

Hokkien Huay Kuan had organised various events to celebrate the birthday of the Goddess of the Sea. Some include lion dance, puppet show and Getai. Below are just some of the photos, you may want to read more on this post.

Devotees at Thian Hock Keng

Hokkien Strng puppet show. Probably it happened during the day, there wasn't any crowd.

A whole load of celebration

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A Lion Salute

As part of Ma Zu Dan, Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan had invited Nam Sieng Dragon and Lion Dance Activity Centre Singapore to perform various acrobats, lion dances and dragon dances at Thian Hock Keng temple whose main deity is Ma Zu. My personal favorite is lion dance on poles. And yes, they performed that last night! It was quite an eye opener.

Who is Ma Zu?

She is a female goddess, protector of sea voyagers. She is also known as Tian Hou.

It was said that she had the power to predict weather and often warned people of bad weathers and advised them not to make journeys to the sea. She was a good swimmer and was able to save people even in the harshest weather. 

Ma Zu Dan

Ma Zu Dan refers to Ma Zu's birthday-festival. It is on the twenty-third day of the third lunar month of the lunar calendar. It falls in late April or early May according to the Gregorian calendar.

About Thian Hock Keng

Thian Hock Keng Temple is a 176 year old monument. It is one of the oldest and most important Hokkien temple in Singapore. In the past, Chinese immigrants who had just completed their journey across the turbulent South China Sea to Singapore ,would make offerings of money and joss-sticks here in Thian Hock Keng as thanksgiving. 

Thian Hock Keng Temple

28 lions were here to salute the goddess. They went into the temple and out again.

That was followed by dragon dance.

2 rows of lion heads

Big Flags performance

These flags are almost ad long as the parade square and are quite heavy. The performers are able to balance them on their head,  arms, fists and even using their mouths.

Stunts like this was displayed. With the occasional wind, the flags almost fell, it can be quite a scare.

Another stunt

Drum performance.

Wushu 

My favorite segment : Lion dances on poles.

Such performance definitely require experience and skills. Some of the poles are place more than 1.5 meter apart! It is hard to jump 1.5m alone. What more together with a companion!

Lion stunts on poles

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